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Qld MP gambles on Vegas project for Cairns

ELEANOR HALL: Could Australia soon be building its own Las Vegas? That's certainly what one MP in Queensland is pushing for. Aidan McLindon wants the state's gaming machines to be collected up and moved to Cairns. He says a Vegas-style gambling precinct would revolutionise both the gaming and the tourist industries in his state.

The mayor of Cairns says the idea as laughable. But a leading anti-gambling advocate says it may have merit. And Mr McLindon is presenting his idea to a tourism futures conference in Brisbane this afternoon, as Ashley Hall reports.

(Sound of poker machines)

ASHLEY HALL: It's a proposal the independent MP for Beaudesert, Aidan McLindon says should create winners all round. On the one hand, creating a gambling centre outside of Cairns would take gaming machines out of towns and suburbs, where problem gamblers are increasingly falling victim to their allure.

AIDAN MCLINDON: It spread like a cancer across Queensland so what we are doing now is we have got lots of mini problems right across Queensland so if we centralised it, it would certainly offer people something where they can go away, blow their money, have a holiday and then come back to reality.

ASHLEY HALL: On the other hand, he says, the new gambling centre would become a major tourist drawcard, along with all the economic benefits that would bring.

AIDAN MCLINDON: The beauty of it is is that all the key stakeholders in this proposal would actually benefit.

ASHLEY HALL: So what sort of a tourist destination do you think it would become?

AIDAN MCLINDON: Well, I certainly wouldn't want to see it with elements of the sleaze that you see in Las Vegas but it needs to be laced in with numerous theme parks.

I think if we can make if family friendly and of course, pokies would be one element of that but if, I think it is important too for the Cairns region to have a balance between the Great Barrier Reef and the tropics and what they have got to showcase there but it would be certainly good given that they have got some of the highest unemployment levels in Queensland.

ASHLEY HALL: Val Schier is the mayor of Cairns region. She's not a fan of the proposal.

VAL SCHIER: Oh look, I think it is absolutely bizarre. I mean where it has come from I have no idea but it is interesting that he has come up with this with no consultation with local people at all and out of the blue, an idea that would be absolutely the wrong thing to happen in the beautiful city of Cairns.

ASHLEY HALL: What are your concerns about the proposal? Why would it be the wrong thing?

VAL SCHIER: Well, because Cairns is renowned for natural environment. We have two world heritage areas on our doorstep, the Great Barrier Reef and the wet tropics rainforest and the last thing we'd want is something that is glitzy, contrived, artificial.

ASHLEY HALL: Val Schier says if Aidan McLindon likes the idea so much, he should work to bring all the state's poker machines to his town.

VAL SCHIER: Gambling also brings with it problems and that is one thing that we are fighting at the moment but no, this is not something that we want at all. We are looking at the sorts of things that attract people to North Queensland as I said are the environment but also the sorts of creative and interesting things that people do up here.

ASHLEY HALL: But the anti-gambling advocate, and chief executive of World Vision, Tim Costello reckons there's some merit in the Aus Vegas proposal.

TIM COSTELLO: What we know is that destination gambling does damage but far less damage than opportunity-driven gambling and I think a bit of the proof is Western Australia. You can only play pokies at the Burswood Casino and they have one fifth of the problem gamblers of the eastern states and places like Queensland.

ASHLEY HALL: The mayor of Cairns has expressed some concern. She says she is a bit worried about the people that live in Cairns. It wouldn't be so much a destination for them.

TIM COSTELLO: No and if I was mayor of Cairns I would be saying exactly the same.

ASHLEY HALL: Aidan McLindan says he's not wedded to Cairns as the location for his new gambling centre.

AIDAN MCLINDON: If Cairns wants to reject the proposal then we'll talk to Townsville. The reality is we need to start looking at a venue, a destination and have the debate.

(Sound of poker machines)

ASHLEY HALL: The MP who has been touting the plan since April last year when he gave his maiden speech in parliament. The next stage of the debate begins this afternoon, when he lays out the plan to a conference on the future of tourism.

(Sound of poker machines)

ELEANOR HALL: Ashley Hall reporting. I wonder if he will be using that music as a backdrop.